LITTLE ROCK — Starting Sunday, it’s going to cost more to access federal court records on the website Public Access to Court Electronic Records, or PACER.
The U.S. court system charges the public 8 cents per page or search, but in September the Judicial Conference of the United States authorized a 2-cent increase because of the increased cost of operating the system, according to a news release from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
However, open-government advocates contend that the charge was already excessive and that it’s cheaper to maintain and improve websites than it was seven years ago, the last time there was a fee increase.
Carl Malamud, founder of the nonprof it group Public.Resource.org, which advocates no fees on the public for federal court records, said Tuesday that the U.S. court system makes a $90 million a year beyond the actual cost of operating PACER.
“It’s a huge profit center for them,” he said in a phone interview. “I don’t understand how in this day and age they can be raising fees 25 percent. With rapidly decreasing costs of computers, it makes no sense.”
Before PACER, people had to go to the federal courthouse to make copies and there was a fee to makes copies. Today, all the information is on PACER and typically it is added electronically by lawyers or the U.S. Department of Justice, which posts the most documents of any single agency and which also has to pay to see the records.
Karen Redmond, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, said the money taken in is used to improve the system and that with the increase the court system intends to roll out an entirely new PACER. She could not say when the new system is coming out or if there will be a public comment period associated with the website improvements.
“We are required by law to take those fees and put them back into improvements,” Redmond said.
She added that 75 to 85 percent of PACER users pay nothing to access records. That’s because there is no charge if a person or organization spends fewer than $10 in a quarter. When the increase goes into effect Sunday that will increase to $15 a quarter.
Newspapers will also feel the increased costs starting next week, said Tom Larimer, executive director ofthe Arkansas Press Association.
“Anything that adds to the expense of gathering news or producing a newspaper is difficult to deal with,” he said. “This is a very challenging time for newspapers, just as it is for most small businesses, and there are only so many new expenses they can absorb.”
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette spent $984.24 for12,303 pages downloaded between Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, the most recent data available. That same amount of money would buy 9,842 pages when the new quarter begins Sunday.
Malamud said the fee places a burden on nonprofits or academic researchers accessing federal court records.
“If you are an academic professor and you are looking to see if civil-rights laws are being applied the same in different districts, you can’t do it. That would take youmillions of dollars,” he said.
He noted that it does cost money to operate PACER and that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts needs to collect money to run the website, but that it shouldn’t come from individuals. He suggested diverting funds derived from court filing fees, which he said brings in $300 million annually, to the website.
Sonny Albarado, president-elect of the Society of Professional Journalists, a national organization that represents journalists anddefends the First Amendment, said the fee doesn’t make sense considering how the system works.
“I don’t think the government should be charging the public for ‘copies’ of a page that doesn’t involve the court making copies,” said Albarado, who is also the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette projects editor. “The documents filed with the federal court are simply scanned and made available. The government’s cost there is minimal. So for them to raise the cost ... is to me objectionable.”
Business, Pages 27 on 03/28/2012